Spring break:Slopes were steep, springs were hot

We're back from Sophie's spring break Sierra ski tour. Although we've been suffering enjoying almost summer-like weather in the bay area, we knew there was still snow in California. It was our mission to go in search of it. We loaded up our van with all the skis in our house and tons of food and set out last Wednesday morning.

SKIING

Kirkwood

First stop on the way down to Mammoth was Kirkwood, where there was big news. I kicked the butt of a run that seriously kicked my butt two years ago. That's right: I SKIED DOWN THE WALL. Twice, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

The Wall is ridiculously steep at the top (hence the name), and what is unusual is that there is only one way down from the lift that services it. Once you're on the lift, you are committed.

And hence, the sign, which two years ago I did not take seriously enough. It was not a good day on the top of The Wall, with humongous chunky mogels and way too many people. I totally lost my nerve and side-slipped down off the top at the least threatening spot, which was unfortunately right under the chair lift. Total humiliation and defeat.

But this year, it was mowed almost all the way up (amazing what they can do with a groomer at Kirkwood), and it was only the first turn off the very top that was hairy. Once past that, it was just ordinary steep stuff. I did it once. I did it twice. That was enough. I had three days at Mammoth ahead of me to think about.

Mammoth

This was my first trip to Mammoth as a person who knows how to ski, and all I can say is WOW. Actually I can say more than that, but still: WOW. What a mountain. It is like four Squaws put together!

Driving from Kirkwood at the end of the day to Mammoth was an easier drive than driving back home, and of course it was a much more beautiful one.

The eastern Sierras are amazing, and every time we visit I wonder why we don't spend more time there. Maybe the six hour drive?

Anywhoo, we had three great days of skiing, excepting the afternoon of the first day when wind shut down even most of the lower mountain. People at Mammoth take their wind very seriously. The gondola up to the top was down in the morning, but there was an hour or so window in the middle of the day, and we jumped right on to ride up and grab a few runs before it shut down again.


That night our friend Matt drove down to join us, and we did it again. And again. And again.

You can't tell because Sophie and I have our faces covered (it was pretty cold most of the time and especially at the summit), but we're smiling as much as Matt.

I was seriously pooped at the end of the last day as fatigue set in from chasing Husband and the Pink Rocket all over the mountain. I sort of miss the days when we would put Sophie in ski school in the morning, ski our asses off, and then pick her up and cruise in the afternoon with her. These days she is right on Husband's tail the entire time, and I feel like we hammer the entire day.

HOT SPRINGS

One thing we love in the eastern Sierras are the nearby wild hot springs.

After skiing, the ones in the Owens Valley were a quick drive away.

This one was nice but not hot enough. The next one we tried was a perfect temperature but too exposed to the howling wind and filled with naked hippies. You should appreciate I am not including pictures.

Crowley's

We three finally found one that was just right.


Crowley's had a nice boardwalk out to it, was out of the wind, a good temperature (could have been a little hotter), and large enough to accommodate the three of us and a few twenty-somethings on their spring break from culinary school.

We came back here a couple days later with our friend Matt.

Travertine

We stopped at Travertine Hot Springs on our way home. Husband and Matt had been here before, but every time I've been in the area it's been too hot to consider soaking in hot water in the direct sun. On a winter afternoon though it was perfect.










Coming up soon: How Sophie won a $20 bet with her dad, a really great ski sandwich, and truly amazing barbecue in Walker.

Now that I'm sort of caught up here, it's time to get caught up on a little blog reading. Anyone have a baby while I was gone???

We're packing up the sticks!

And all sorts of other gear to head to Alta, Utah tomorrow in search of snow. Not hard scratchy stuff that melts in the day and freezes again at night. We've got that in the Sierras. We want the real stuff.


This is our first destination ski trip as a family. Amazing the amount of stuff needed (this isn't all of it).

For the three of us, we have five sets of skis, ski boots, snow boots, apre ski boots, helmets, radios, ski clothes, dinner clothes, and sandwich makings. Yes, the lodge where we will be staying serves breakfast and dinner but not lunch, which I've been convinced to supply. It won't be the first time I've slapped together sandwiches in a hotel bathroom.

We're a little concerned that we have too much stuff.

Could we save by shipping the kid and her skis? Blogger pal Katie offered to receive gear we might want to ship. Do you think she would mind this package?

We fly home Wednesday night, do a quick turnaround on Thursday (wash the ski clothes, pack more food) and drive up to Tahoe that evening so Sophie can be on the slopes first thing Friday morning for her NASTC Kids Ski Camp. Did I mention I have a moms' (no dudes or kids allowed) ski trip the next weekend? I know. 

2008 travel list

Another annual list demonstrating that we are neither globe trotters nor luxury travelers. But we like where we go and how we go.

Newport Beach, CA (my parents live here)

Homewood, CA (the ski cabin we rent so often it feels like home)


Incline, NV

Berkeley Tuolemne Camp (near Yosemite; we weren't able to go for our summer trip but pitched in at the Memorial Day work weekend to help get camp ready to open)


Ten-Mile Hotspring (near Wells, NV)




Grand Tetons (Jenny Lake)





Yellowstone (Slough Creek)



Hawley Mountain Guest Ranch, (sort of) near McLeod, MT


Comptche, CA (our good friends have a weekend house here)


Cayucos, CA

It's been a great year. No European tours or Mexican spa vacations, but our family pod did get to spend plenty of time together in tents and ski cabins and with good friends.

Yellowstone: Alternativesto the geothermal whoopla

Yeah, we really did go there. It's just taken me a while to get through the heaps of digital photos we took. In that heap you'd think we'd have a picture of the Figs standing in front of Old Faithful. But, no. We arrived just after it had gone off and as hundreds of people were streaming through the parking lot to their cars because if it's not going off, there's nothing to see, right? And no, we didn't stay for the next blast off.

I have a very un-Yellowstone-like confession: Other than learning about how the park was formed and understanding the geological significance of the geothermal activity, I'm just not that interested in what are considered the big ticket items of Yellowstone. Don't get me wrong: It's some fun stuff.

We hopped out of the car to look at a few mudpots, steaming ponds, and the like and rode our bikes a few miles to see the Lonestar Geyser (which did go off when we were there—I explained to Sophie that Old Faithful is just like that, only bigger), but I have about half a day of tolerance for it all. Part of it's the crowds; part is the pavement paths you walk over to get to it all.

What we wanted was this:


However, we spent the first night camping at the ghastly Grant Village, which is pretty much like you're camping in a dirt parking lot with some trees. This is one of about half the campgrounds in the part operated by a private concession, where they assign you a site based on personal data entered into a computer (number in party; pet yes/no; size of tent; etc.). We settled for a night there so we could spend our first day seeing some sites without worrying about securing a place to sleep.

The next morning we hightailed it up to the campground I had selected through my exhaustive internet research: Slough Creek. It's off the beaten path, up a two-mile dirt road in the northeastern part of the park.

No electricity, no flushers, RVs ok but no generators. And my dad remembered backpacking there as a kid from their family summer cabin in Montana, due north of Slough Creek by not too much. All good reasons to make it our Yellowstone home.


Because it was off the beaten path, it did mean that we spent a little more time than we would have liked touring around in our car. We were particularly glad though to have our bikes with us, which allowed us to cover more ground.


In addition to our Lonestar Geyser ride, we also rode out to Artists Point for good views of the falls through the canyon known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.




Back in our own neighborhood, we enjoyed a hike up the Slough Creek Trail,




where we saw many interesting things, including

a cabin in which we would like to live and

the remains of an elk who probably had a run-in with a grizzly or grey wolf (these things happen, you know).

Here's pictures of a few other things around the park we liked.

Did you know that twenty years ago the whole damned thing almost burned down? But that's sort of a good thing. We learned in one of the nature centers that the seeds in the cones of lodgepole pines can only be released by fire, since it takes lots of heat to melt the glue that holds them in there. Interesting, huh?


We were really excited to see this handsome bison. Can you imagine how excited we were the next day to see a herd of over a hundred of them?

And there were flowers. Not everywhere since many parts of the park are fairly arid. But there were lots right where I wanted them most: outside the door of my tent.


And of course we were very excited when Sophie earned her second junior ranger patch of the summer, making her a triple-threat ranger (Denali, Tetons, Yellowstone).


But a post on Yellowstone would be incomplete without mention of bears. Leading up to this trip I had spent months worrying about bears. So I bought some of this:


Husband thought I was a complete idiot, but I felt better rolling over in my sleeping bag in the middle of the night and seeing its little glow-in-the-dark release tab. I explained to Sophie that it is something you hope you never need to use because if you find yourself in the position where it looks like a good idea, you're already pretty fucked.

Slough Creek is known as the grizzly area of the park, and a few weeks before there had been a grizzly who tore open a couple of tents when people were out of camp. We didn't see any there but were plenty of motivated to follow the guidelines for camping with bears, which included putting away everything—food, cosmetics, dishes (even clean ones), water buckets, stoves, etc.—in a bear box or locked car every time you went to bed or left camp. We had had to do the same thing in Tetons, so after a week and a half I was more annoyed with bears than afraid of them. Other wild life was a evidence though. We had coyotes run across the road in front of our car a few times, and we listened to the wolves howling at dawn, Slough Creek being the only place in the park where you can hear them.

Husband and I tried to explain to Sophie that when we were kids there was a cartoon show based on Yellowstone and the bears. Yogi Bear and his sidekick BooBoo, inhabitants of Jellystone Park, spent their days in search of picinick baskets, with that poor outsmarted Mr. Ranger hot on their heels. She asked "Well, what else happened in the show?" "Nothing!" we explained. "Just picnic baskets?" "Yes! With BooBoo! And Mr. Ranger!" It's hard to explain.